updated 07:05 pm EST, Wed February 2, 2011

HP Topaz tablet hinted in teaser video

HP today posted a teaser clip (below) for a device it will show at its February 9 event. The video shows little, but it does point to the Topaz tablet as a possibility through its very curved design and what appears to be a rotation lock. A sleep/wake button and a speaker are also caught in the brief glimpse.

If it's the Topaz, the device should be a 9.7-inch tablet using a new version of webOS with an onscreen keyboard and new tablet-specific elements such as pop-over windows and app tabs. What it would be powered by underneath is still mostly unknown, but a faster processor and a front camera have been most commonly mentioned. Most of HP's advantage will revolve around cloud syncing that could store media and even possibly app states online, letting owners get at all the tablet's content wherever they are.

Other candidates are the Broadway and Manta smartphones alluded to in the past. These have few if any details but might involve a full-touchscreen webOS phone for the first time.

CEO Leo Apotheker has said both that the hardware name won't fit in with Palm's older scheme and that devices ready on February 9 will be shipping relatively soon afterwards.